Eleven women sanitation workers from India hit a jackpot worth over a million dollars last week.
The sanitation workers belong to India’s southern state of Kerala who collectively bought a lottery ticket on June 11. The women won a lottery worth 100 million rupees ($1.2 million).
The group that these women belong to gather non-biodegradable waste from households in Parappanangadi town in Kerala’s Malappuram district. They earn meagre income-around 250 rupees a day from households they collect the waste from and sometimes the regional corporation pays them some portion of the revenue earned from the sale of waste they collect.
To run their households, such meagre income is not enough, so according to them, majority of the women sanitation workers either borrow money or take it on loan to pay for their children’s education and other household expenses. Such situations force them to buy lottery tickets collectively.
Though lottery is illegal in Kerala, it is only from the private sources, the state government itself organizes a lottery programme. In many states of India as well lottery is banned. One of the women who frequently buys ticket for these women group said, “Once, we won a 1,000-rupee prize and shared it.”
The group made the decision to purchase a 250-rupee ticket for the monsoon bumper prize lottery last month (bumper prize lotteries are held for specific events like festivals).
When Radha began gathering donations, Kuttimalu, 72, claims she was initially depressed because she didn’t have enough money. Talking to BBC, she said, “Then Cherumannil Baby (another member of the group) told me she had 25 rupees and was willing to lend me half of it for the ticket.”
Two of the eleven women could only pay 12.5 rupees each and the remaining nine women paid 25 rupees each as part of their share. “We agreed we would get an equal share if we won anything. We didn’t expect to win such a huge amount of money!” says Kuttimalu.
The women found out later, a day after the results were announced, when one of them asked her husband to check them. Radha says, “This is the fourth time we bought a ticket for the bumper prize. We are fourth time lucky!”
62-year-old Baby is surprised over the big lottery win by the women group.
“Luck was never on my side,” she claims. During Kerala’s 2018 disastrous floods, her home was destroyed. She now intends to construct a home and settle her debts.
The entire group of women workers have heart jolting stories.
Bindu, 50, lost her husband to kidney failure last year. The cost of his transplant was out of the family’s price range. She claims that “He used to buy lottery tickets with the money we kept for dialysis. He left us without finishing the construction of our house. I have to complete it now.” Bindu intends to use the funds to pay for her daughter’s education, who is 15 years old, so that she works in a better job.
Lakshmi, 49, claims that her family had been fretting about the future just the night before they won the lotto. Due to the state’s prolonged period of rain, her husband, a construction worker, was having trouble finding employment.
Now that they can put the money towards their daughter’s studies, the pair feels relieved.
According to KT Balabhaskaran, director of the Suchitwa Mission, the organisation that oversees social initiatives throughout the state, in addition to collecting rubbish, the ladies assist with building public restrooms and installing facilities for disposing of waste.
“We decided one thing. We will not leave this job because it was this collective that brought us prosperity,” says Leela.
